


Old Fox Coffee

by roisinn



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Eventually Okayy, Fluff and Angst, M/M, a slowburn? we'll see I'm impatient, andreil eventually y'all, maybe even some renison if we're lucky
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-21 03:25:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14275905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roisinn/pseuds/roisinn
Summary: Basically another coffee shop au ft. an expectedly unamused coffee shop employee Andrew and our favourite runner college student Neil





	1. Sweet

Neil was startled awake from the sound of an airhorn being blasted into his dorm room. The abrupt sound had caused a brief flood of panic through his body, which led him to automatically reach to the bedside table looking for a weapon.

His hand however only found a glass of water which was subsequently spilled all over the carpet. He turned to the doorway to see Dan Wilds standing with Renee holding the horn and laughing manically. Dan was the longtime girlfriend of his roommate Matt, a high school sweetheart sort of scenario that Neil wished he knew less details about.

  
Matt wasn’t so lucky or subtle and ended up sprawled out on the floor with nothing but his boxers on.

  
“Dan what the fuck?” He grunted from the ground.

Matt tried to stand up to chase his girlfriend but immediately fell down due to the blankets wrapped around his legs. This only seemed to fuel the girl’s laughter even more to the point where Dan was literally bent over with laughter.

  
“That’s what happens when you empty a water bottle on your girlfriend!”

Neil remembered that day fondly. He’d been eating lunch outside with Dan and Renee when Matt sneaked up to her, grabbed her water and poured it over her head before sprinting away. Neil didn’t think he had ever seen a person look so shocked and offended in his life. He didn't think it was a big deal, it was just water, but it seemed to spawn an ever growing prank war between the two, that Neil often found himself in the middle of.

Renee piped in a small “Sorry Neil!” before Dan blasted the horn again and slammed the door.

He looked at his clock to see that his alarm wasn’t set to go off for another 40 minutes, but he definitely wasn’t going to fall back asleep now. Neil threw himself onto his mattress face down and groaned loudly.

  
“I’m requesting a dorm room change” He mumbled at Matt through a mouthful of pillow. The other boy just laughed at him as he flopped back down on his bed.

“Maybe you’ll just have to help me find a way to get her back”

“Ooh no way am I getting any more involved this.”

Matt pouted at him.

“You brought this on yourself buddy.” Neil reluctantly threw his covers off and stood up to stretch his back. It was still an hour and a half before his first class started. Instead of curling up in bed & trying to sleep, he decided to be more productive for once. He went into the bathroom and quickly changed into a pair of dark blue running shorts and plain black t shirt. When he stepped out Matt had a quizzical look on his face after giving him a once over.

“You’re not going for a run are you? It’s freezing outside man.” Neil frowned and looked out the window, it certainly didn’t look cold from in there.

“I’ll warm up” He shrugged.

“Whatever you say dude. I don’t have class until 11, I'm going back to sleep.” And with that he turned over and pulled his blanket up over his head. Neil grabbed his keys and wallet, slid on his sneakers and slipped out the door. The second he opened the doors of the dorm room building, Neil was greeted by a huge gust of icy wind that sent goosebumps up his skin. From here he could only spot a couple of other students smiling around, all bundled up from head to toe. He looked up at the building and frowned in the general direction his room. He could just imagine Matt’s voice in his head. _I told you so_.

He thought briefly about going back upstairs to grab a hoodie at least but decided against it when he thought about the smug look that Matt would give him. Instead he decided to do his usual warm up stretches before setting off at a jog.

The workload at this time of year was unexpectedly huge which meant it had been over a week since Neil had even had the opportunity to go running. He could already feel the subtle stiffness in his legs from lack of use which only made him push harder. After a few miles he couldn’t even feel his fingertips and the cold air wasn’t doing wonders for his lungs.

The route he took was different to his usual way and he found himself across the road from a coffee shop he’d not seen before. _Old Fox Coffee_ the sign read as he crossed the road. Neil wasn’t even joking when he thought he’d kill a man for a warm _anything_ right now, so he went inside. He was immediately overwhelmed by the strong smell of coffee beans and a blast of warm air. He wasn’t sure he’d ever had such a comforting feeling.

The cafe was small, but cozy. They had a case displaying all sorts of nice looking foods. Around the room were a few tables strewn around the place with a lot of comfortable looking chairs and couches. The place only had 2 other customers who looked tp be a middle age couple, both eagerly engrossed in whatever conversation they were having and paying no attention to him. On the walls hung lots of photographs, mostly black and white of places around the city, Neil even recognised a few of them.

“Are you going to order something or just stand around here all day?” Came a bored voice from in front of Neil.

He turned to the counter to see a blonde man staring at him from the other side of the counter, as if he was looking right through any facade Neil had ever put up. This, he knew, should've made him nervous or uncomfortable, but more so curious than anything. He was only a couple of inches shorter than Neil (which was rare in itself) but he still gave off an intense _don't fuck with me_ vibe. He had strong features with a sharp jawline and hazel eyes that seemed iridescent in the morning light. The man was dressed head to toe in black save for the bright orange apron covered in paw prints. Neil smiled shyly and was sure he felt a small blush blooming on his cheeks.

“Sorry I was just-“ Neil shook his head. “Never mind. Uh, can I just get a coffee?” The blonde raised an eyebrow at him.

“Large, black, no sugar.”

  
“Name?” 

  
Neil frowned. “I’m only one in here ordering.”

The blonde - Andrew, his named tag said, stared at him. Neil was used to people looking at the scars across his cheeks but Andrew merely spared them a cursory glance and set his gaze directly into his eyes

  
He sighed. “Neil.”

  
“Okay.” He pressed a button on the machine. “Three dollars.”

  
Neil grabbed his wallet from his pocket and handed over the money.

  
“What sort of person goes running without clothes on in this weather anyway?” The man asked.

Neil huffed.”You’re not the first person to ask me that.”

“Aha, so you’re stupid and impractical.”

“Never claimed to be anything else.” He replied dryly.

He tilted his head to he side, as if examining him. “You seem pretty sure of yourself.”

“And you seem to make an awful lot of assumptions when you know less than nothing about me.”

Andrew looked at him for a moment. His expression was unreadable, but still notably different from just before. Neil decided to sit down on a seat by the window to wait and stared out at the street. It wasn’t a busy area of the city but every so often a few people would pass by, presumably on their way to work. Eventually his thoughts started to drift to other things before a voice snapped him out of it.

“Neil.”

He looked up to see Andrew staring at him impatiently, holding a coffee. He got up and walked back up to the counter, hesitating slightly for some reason. He then held Neil’s coffee out further for him as if he was dense. Neil took it from him and gave him a two-fingered salute on his way out the door. He didn’t look back to gauge the other man’s reaction but presumed it was met by an eye roll.

He took a sip from the coffee and almost spit it out. This drink was definitely way too sweet for his liking, he remembered specifically asking for no sugar. The temperature was still frigid so Neil resigned himself to this fate and drank the rest of his coffee in silent protest. When he returned back to his room, Matt was still curled up asleep so Neil grabbed some significantly warmer clothes and headed into the bathroom to take a shower and get ready for class. He stood under the water for a lot longer than strictly necessary, relishing the warmth of the stream. His thoughts drifted back to the foul coffee he’d been forced to consume just moments ago. _Pretty lousy barista if you ask me_ Neil thought to himself, _can’t believe I'm going to go back._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just bear in mind I live in Australia & have no grasp whatsoever on how the education system (or anything really) works in the US so if things now or in future make no sense its because I come from a nonsense section of the world.


	2. Curious

A week or so later, Neil sat outside on the grass with his earphones in, attempting to study, though his eyes kept trailing over to a small group of dancers practicing not too far away from him. His gaze definitely wasn’t that of a sexual nature, more so curiosity than anything. The first sign of sun and most of the girls seemed to go out of their way to wear as little clothing as possible.

Neil really didn’t understand how most of the guys he knew found this attractive. Although to be fair, he was definitely far from an expert on the subject.

Neil had listened to hours of Matt and Dan talking about each other and found that he’d never felt even close to that way about anyone. Boy or girl. He’d said this to Matt, who seem a bit surprised at his lack of experience due to his "unfairly good looks", but totally supportive of it.

He suggested that maybe Neil just hadn’t met the right girl yet and offered to see if he could set him with one of Dan’s friends. Neil declined immediately. 90% of her friends that he had met, were some of the most exhausting people he had ever been around. Constantly moving and talking talking talking, it was just too much for him. 

There was a group of guys sitting a few metres to his left, making an obscene amount of noise compared to the other students around them. He recognised one or two of them from his history class.They were ogling at the girls practicing their dance routine which included a complimentary wolf whistle or dirty comment every few minutes. Football jocks, Neil assumed, the kind of people who seemed to get away with things that no one else could.

Neil hated them. Although he generally took a dislike to most people unless they gave him a good reason not to.

It wasn’t something that he did intentionally but stemmed from years and years of behavioural restraint from his mother.

It had been a long time since she died but Neil found himself hearing her voice and orders in head, which he was getting better at ignoring everyday. Every so often he could just imagine her chastising him for not keeping a low enough profile and making too many attachments. In all honesty, he never thought he’d make it this far in life, never saw a future for himself outside of staying alive everyday.

But here he was, 20 years old, studying and getting a proper, consistent education. And what more, he had some of the best, or only friends, he’d ever had in his life.

After 15 minutes or so of trying to get some work done, Neil packed up his stuff and made his way back to his room to get books for the next class.

He walked in to see Dan curled up asleep on Matt’s bed, laying on top of the covers with open books scattered around her. This was a pretty common occurrence as there was a well known, mutual hatred between her and her roommate, Joanna, which meant she spent a lot of her free time in their dorm. Neil didn’t mind though, he liked Dan. She had a very confident but honest nature, which he admired.

She didn’t even rouse when Neil entered the room, so he quickly and quietly grabbed his things, and headed off to class.

He turned out to be the first person to arrive to the classroom, so he grabbed a seat by the back and pulled out his homework from the previous week. After a few minutes other students started to trickle in, filling up the unoccupied seats.

Kevin made his way to his usual spot beside Neil, a quick nod the only sign that he even acknowledged his presence. That basically summed up their relationship.

Friends, but not _friends_ friends.

He'd met Kevin on the first week of class when they were forced to do a partnered assignment in advanced calculus. Neil remembered being annoyed that he was forced to work with an annoying bro-type joke guy, but Kevin turned out to be one of the brightest people he knew, which surprised him a great deal. Although his only passion seemed to be living at the gym, Neil found out that he was an enthusiastic history major who, given the opportunity, would talk anyone's ear off about it. Neil wasn’t really the intense physical workout type and hardly ever made it to the gym, but every so often the two would even go for runs together as he seemed to be the only one who could almost match Neil’s pace. Kevin had tried to persuade him to join a sport or take it up professionally, but that’s not why he did it. It was the feeling of pure freedom that he loved about it, he couldn’t care less about doing it competitively. 

The professor arrived a few minutes later and started talking and writing equations on the board. For some reason maths had always been Neil’s easiest and favourite subject. It’s not as if he’d had a chance to take it seriously anywhere when he was younger, but he’d always passed through the highest high school classes with ease. He wasn’t sure what it was, but something about numbers and calculations just made sense in his brain. English on the other hand, was something he tended to struggle with. The idea that some people chose to sit down and read a book for fun seemed foreign to Neil. It wasn't as if he didn't have any prior education in the subject, just for some reason his brain always had trouble stringing together words and sentences. Sometimes he could stare at a page for an hour and not be able to gain a single thing from it. Things like that were never any sort of priority for Neil when he was on the run with his mother though. As long as he'd gone through seemingly unnoticed in his classes, who cared how much he struggled or understood.

An hour and a half later, after their professor had handed out an absurd amount of homework, Neil packed his books away and found Allison leaning against the wall, waiting for him outside the door to the classroom.

Allison was the type of person Neil would never have really imagined himself being friends with, tall, blonde, beautiful, the kind of girl who always got a second look in passing. Although some people may assume she was your average, dumb blonde, Neil had never met anyone quite like her, sharp-witted and intuitive, and next to Matt, she was probably his best friend. Their friendship could be classified as somewhat of an accident really. The only reason they knew each other was because she was roommates with Renee, who was friends with Dan, who was dating Matt, who he just happened to share a room with. 

When as she saw him, she linked her arm with his as the pushed through the crowded hallway and out into the courtyard.

As soon as they were outside though, she let go of him and looked down at him with an accusatory stare.

“Have you been avoiding me Neil?”

“Of course I haven’t.”

She squinted at him. “Well how come we haven’t hung out in” She paused dramatically to look down at her watch. “Four whole days?”

In all honesty Neil didn’t even realise it’d been that long, he’d been stressing out about a huge essay he had to finish for history in just over a week.

He sighed. “Allison I’ve been up to my ass with work all week, you know I’d never avoid you on purpose.”

She pouted and batted her eyelashes at him “I guess you’ll just have to make it up to me then.”

Neil rolled his eyes.

“How about I buy you food then?”

She grinned at him. “I’ll drive.”

They parked a little way down the street from the cafe and walked passed an old guy sitting on a bench who let out a low whistle at Allison, she stuck the finger up at him which made Neil smile. It wasn’t uncommon for people to do this to her, but she always took it in stride. Sometimes Neil felt a bit out of place next to her, all tight clothes and bright colours, him with his dark jeans and plain hoodies. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about his appearance, but he really didn’t. Allison had tried to convince him to go shopping with her several times in the past. But he’d always declined. She’d even offered to pay, thinking it was a financial thing, but no, Neil really wasn’t that bothered about it. There was still a part of him that always just wanted to fit in and go by as unnoticed as possible, but even with the freedom of being able to dictate his own life, Neil found that he preferred it like that anyway.

When they got to the Old fox Coffee shop, it was a bit more packed than usual, but still substantially quieter than most places in town. A majority of the people were around his age, probably other college kids. Allison went to go get them a table while Neil ordered the food.

He stood in line behind an elderly woman. A different employee was serving today, a man probably a few years older than him with dark skin and even darker hair.

“Hi, what can I get you today?” He asked cheerfully.

 _So maybe they aren’t all unfriendly here_ Neil thought.

The woman proceeded to order an entire shops worth while Neil started counting the packets or sugar in a bowl on the counter. He saw a familiar blonde head facing away from him making coffees at the machine. When he handed the lady her drinks, his eyes passed over Neil without even a flicker of recognition, which disappointed him slightly for some reason. There was no reason why he'd remember his face, they must've hd hundreds of customers since he'd last been here.

Before the other server could take his order, Andrew whispered something in his ear which caused the man to frown at Neil for a moment before turning away to serve food to a couple by the window.

He looked down at Neil's outfit. “Do you always dress for the opposite of whatever the weather is?” He asked blandly.

Neil smiled. “Do you always chastise customers on their clothing choices?”

He ignored him. “Black, no sugar?” He asked.

Neil frowned. “You sure you can do it correctly this time?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Neil sighed. “Right. Well can I also get a cappuccino with one sugar, and two almond croissants.”

“Hungry today?”

He rolled his eyes and tilted his head to their table where Allison was sitting, looking at her phone. Something flickered in Andrew’s expression but it passed as quickly as it came.

“That’s $12.40.” Neil handed over the money and noticed the black armbands he wore on each arm. With his arm stretched out, Neil could make out the slight bumps that he recognised well as knives. He wondered why somebody would need to carry weapons with them, especially somebody working a day job at a cafe. The thought made Neil feel slightly nauseous but then Andrew simply turned away to go and make the coffees, so he went to sit down in the chair across from Allison. 

“How long does it take to get some coffee.” She complained.

“A while when old people insist on taking their time and the barista doesn’t like you.”

“You mean the one who keeps glancing over at us?”

Neil shifted in his chair to look but by then Andrew had spun back around. He shot Allison a _yeah right_ look but she just shrugged. A few minutes later the other server brought over their food and returned a moment later with their coffees, shooting him a quick smile. 

They ate and drank for a bit while Allison complained about her current love interest, as per usual. Her predicament was that her crush also happened to be her roommate, Renee, who she wasn’t sure was even interested in girls. 

“Maybe you should just ask her out?” Neil suggested. “What is the worst that could happen?”

Allison pretended to think about it for a moment. “Hmm, well I don’t know. It could ruin our friendship for starters!”

Neil rolled his eyes. This is basically what happened every time the subject was brought up, Neil telling her to be straightforward, and Allison coming up with reasons not to be. If Neil was being honest, he found it kind of amusing sometimes. He’d seen her go through a lot of crushes and the whole mess with her ex-boyfriend Seth, but nobody had ever left her so flustered and clueless.

Neil almost jumped when Allison stood up so fast, she hit her knee on the table. “Ouch, fuck!” The women at the table next to them frowned at her, but she didn’t seem to notice.

“Renee just texted me asking to go shopping with her for Dan’s birthday, that’s basically a date right?” She looked at him with hopeful eyes.

“I really wouldn’t know.” He replied honestly.

“Would you mind if I go? Oh shit I drove, I can drop you off back at campus.”

Neil shook his head. “It’s okay I can walk. It’s what, a mile away?”

“Are you sure?”

“It's fine, really. Go profess your love or whatever.” Allison stuck her tongue out at him and grabbed her handbag.

“I’ll see you tomorrow yeah?” Neil nodded. She downed the last sip of her coffee and walked out the door, ruffling his hair on the way out. Neil got up and stretched out his back before grabbing his bag. Before he left, he quickly bought some food for Matt and Dan as they were almost definitely in his dorm right now, and they always did the same thing for him. The other employee from earlier served him who seemed insistent on making small talk and appeared way too cheerful for someone serving predominantly caffeine deprived students on a Sunday afternoon.

When he walked outside, he found Andrew leaning back with one foot against the wall, holding a packet of cigarettes. The light seemed to bounce off his pale hair which was a stark contrast from the rest of his body, in the same all-black ensemble Neil remembered from last time, minus the aggressively orange apron. He gave Neil a quick once over before patting down his pockets and frowning.

“You have a light?” He seemed to be talking to no one in particular, but seeing as Neil was the only one there, he reached into his pocket and waked over to hand him the lighter. Andrew lit his cigarette and then offered the pack towards Neil. He seemed slightly surprised when he actually took one. It had been at least a year since the last time he smoked, usually it happened when he was alone because the smell reminded him of his mother. Though this brand was different and there was something about being near Andrew that seemed to calm his memories. He took a long drag of his cigarette and watched the smoke tendrils drift into the air.

“Your date leave you?” He teased.

“It wasn’t a date.”

The man raised an eyebrow at him.

“It wasn’t, she’s not even my type.”

Andrew hummed. “So what is?” Neil thought about it. He wasn’t sure if he even had one. “I don’t know.” He answered honestly.

Neil thought about him looking over at them earlier. “Why, is she your type?”

Andrew looked at him as if he were stupid. “No.” He replied flatly and took another drag of his cigarette. Allison didn’t really seem like the sort of person Andrew would be attracted to, but his manner didn’t give a lot away so Neil was pretty clueless. They stood side by side in a comfortable silence for a while before Neil broke the quiet.

“You go to school here?” He asked.

Andrew huffed. “Dropped out, full of idiots.” He made a pointed look at Neil. He couldn’t argue.

“Right. Pursuing your career in the coffee business I assume?” 

“Fuck off.” 

Neil smiled. 

“What were you majoring in?” 

“Wasn’t there long enough to decide.” 

Neil frowned. “Why’d you drop out then?” 

Andrew flicked his cigarette on the ground and stubbed it out with his boot, before turning to Neil with a blank expression.

“Is this an interrogation?”

Neil shrugged. “Sorry, just curious.” Which was true. He rarely looked at someone and wondered anything about them, but there was something about Andrew that made him want to know more. The casual and uninterested facade made Neil wonder what was underneath. Andrew didn’t care what people thought of him, that much was obvious, but he also left a lot to the imagination.

“Maybe i’ll start charging by the question.” 

That really made Neil laugh. He could’ve counted on one hand the amount of people who had ever made him laugh. He didn’t expect a stranger to be in that list. Andrew looked at him for a moment with an odd expression before pushing off the wall to look at his wrist as if checking the time on an imaginary watch

“Breaks over.”

And with that he walked away without even glancing back at Neil. He watched Andrew go back into the shop until the door swung shut behind him and Neil was left standing against the wall by himself. The encounter left him with an unfamiliar feeling in his chest.

He stubbed out his cigarette and started on his way back to campus, when the sun disappeared and the faintest patter of rain began to fall.  _That'd be right_ Neil thought to himself as it started to get heavier. A whole day of warmth was apparently too much to ask at this time of year. He could just imagine Andrew's quiet amusement at his predicament and really wished he'd checked the forecast every once and a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've literally only got like 3 chapters so far but I'm already thinking "oh this would be so much better from Andrew's POV" & have to physically restrain myself from doing the same scenes in both POV's every chapter bc I don't have time to write it.
> 
> I have so many ideas of how this could go but it'll probably be a basic storyline but god I hope theres some andreil soon
> 
> Any criticisms/suggestions are super appreciated!


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